Help with a character concept!

[GreyBlack]

Okay, so I need some help with mapping out a character concept; I know what I want his abilities to look like but am completely unsure of how to build such a character in game, so I'm going to ask you, the forumites, for some assistance.

This character was raised as a prodigy of war, studying at the best war colleges and mastering multiple forms of combat. He is a tactical and physical genius, knowing how to use whatever necessary to win the battle. During the last great war, he wound up on the side that, while it won, has been vilified by the rest of the world for some of the acts undertaken (e.g. deicide). In the aftermath, he attempted suicide and wound up on an island where he fought his way through a cave to the bottom and was granted a form of magic from an eldritch horror residing beneath the island. For the past 5 years, he's wandered, looking to set right some of the atrocities he's committed over the years, using both his tactical genius and his new found powers to become the strongest warrior there is.

My problem here is every build I put together feels fundamentally wrong in some sense, so I was wondering if I could just get some feedback on what you vibe you guys get from this background. If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask if you think it'll give you a better sense of the character (as there's A LOT left out).

A COUPLE HOUSE RULES:

1) There is a hard delineation between arcane and divine magic. AMF itself does not exist, but rather an Arcane AMF and a Divine AMF do, in addition to a couple other things about spell power sources.

2) Mythic will be a thing in this campaign. All core books are on the table, but no third party.

3) Standard deities do not exist. The DM has his own pantheon that he wants to use.

If there's anything else, feel free to post and ask. We are starting at level 5, but going out to 20, so if you feel like posting a build like that, feel free. Thank you guys for the help!

[TandemChelipeds]

Have you looked at the hybrid classes? Sounds like a Warpriest to me. Possibly a Divine Commander (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/warpriest/archetypes/paizo---warpriest-archetypes/divine-commander).

[Paul H]

Hi

Warpriest does sound good here, but a bit of a warning on the Mythic thing.

We're playing Wrath of the Runelords online, and our characters are Lvl 13 Tier 6 Mythic. Because of Mythic stuff (and a specially crafted bow), even the big bad Mythic bosses only last about 3 rnds (maybe less).

We've had a few [ahem] 'interesting' moments when we got kicked a bit, but usually don't have a problem unless it's a long drawn out fight & we have to use lots of resources.

As for Warpriest - it has diminished spellcasting & cleric BAB, but makes up for this with extra combat feats, Blessings & Fervour. (Latter works similar to Lay on Hands, but can also be used to cast spells on self as a swift action, ignoring somatic component). Plus it has Martial Wpn proficiency.

Thanks
Paul H

PS. Playing a Tiefling Myrmidarch with a Comp Longbow fitted for +1 Str. Evil Outsider Bane/Axiomatic/Holy. Usually have Gtr Wpn running (making it +3).
Have Hasted Assault (Arcana) plus +3 hit/dam (arcane pool) plus usual feats including Mythic Deadly Aim

[GreyBlack]

I like the idea of the warpriest, but am slightly concerned as the DM has stated that he wants a high OP campaign. Will I be able to compete with that class?

[TandemChelipeds]

I like the idea of the warpriest, but am slightly concerned as the DM has stated that he wants a high OP campaign. Will I be able to compete with that class?

Well, obviously it isn't as good as a cleric, but it does seem to cover your character concept. At the very least, having spells means you won't be left standing around when hitting things isn't the best option. I'd say warpriests are probably around Tier 3. Pick your blessings well if you go with the default warpriest. Some of them look incredibly handy from where I'm sitting, like Liberation(freedom of movement? yes please) or Charm(charming presence is quite nice if you want to throw some buffs and summons around, or even if you want to focus on one strategically-important enemy without worrying about the minions). You can refluff them however you see fit, too; maybe Charm doesn't represent charisma so much as your eldritch patron softening your opponents' resolve.

You wouldn't happen to know which domains are available to your deity of choice, would you? Depending on which ones it has, you may want to go with cleric instead. Madness is way better(practically broken) as a cleric domain than as a warpriest blessing, for instance.

EDIT: In any case, see if you can get Dreamed Secrets (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/dreamed-secrets) approved by your DM. It fits your flavour, and it effectively gives you access to the entire Wizard spell list up to 8th or 5th level, especially if you spend a feat on Scribe Scroll. Depending on whether your DM rules the scrolls you scribe count as arcane or divine, you may be able to apply shenanigans to expand a wizard ally's spell list indefinitely, just by using that feat every day and letting your wizard copy the spells you scribe. They'll adore you for that, and it sounds entirely in-character.

[Paul H]

Hi

Well, Destruction, Good, Travel would be my favourites.

Destruction adds half your Warpriest level to damage as the low level bit. +4 to confirm crits & Fortification (50% immunity crits & sneak) at level 10.

Good adds D6 damage to attacks vs Evil at low level. Can summon monster IV (good outsiders & animals only) at 10th lvl. Can only summon one critter, but it's std action to summon it plus it gains celestial template.

Travel allows you as swift action to ignore difficult terrain for one round. Dimensional Hop is 10th lvl thing. Move action. Allows you to teleport 10' per Blessing point used. can take others with you for extra Blessing point. Must have LOS to destination.

Note all Blessings are std action to activate and last 1 minute (Unless text specifies otherwise).

Thanks
Paul H

[caimbuel]

Warpriest is a trap with Mythic, to many swift actions, You will always be wishing you had more. Now Sacred Fist will fix that to some degree, and the furry combined with champions Precision to add to your additional attacks, after taking it 3 times, your base attacks would be 17/17/17/17/17/17/17 at lvl 20. Add in the pummel feats and you could literally 1 shot about anything.

YMMV

[GreyBlack]

Thank you to all who replied! You're really helping me out a lot!

I spoke to my DM and he did give me a couple things:

1) Dreamed Secrets is in, as he said my patron is basically an Old God/Demiurge, so I'm more than welcome to a feat like that.
2) The Blessings/Domains I'd be allowed per the patron are Darkness, Death, Earth, Knowledge and Magic. Per the DM, this is the god of Knowledge, Fate, Time, Life and Death buried underneath the earth, so I should be looking in that direction.

In terms of the character itself, I don't know how well Divine Commander or Sacred Fist work with the concept. Currently, I have him flavored as Neutral Good, bordering on True Neutral. His time in the military taught him to be extremely wary of authority, but he isn't outright hostile towards it, so he isn't exactly thrilled about actually leading an army himself. As to Sacred Fist, he hasn't sworn off weapons and, at least to my mind, should be proficient with all martial weapons.

[Vhaidara]

Dreamscarred Press, a third party publisher with a reputation that rivals Paizo (in my experience of things) just released Path of War, a Tome of Battle conversion.

There is a base class called the Warder, which is a tactician. There are Prestige Classes for combining PoW classes with Arcane magic, Divine magic, or Psionics. I would recommend asking about it, because Warder/Psion (or wizard or Sage-blooded sorc)/Arcane PrC (afb right now, forget the name) sounds perfect for this

[GreyBlack]

Dreamscarred Press, a third party publisher with a reputation that rivals Paizo (in my experience of things) just released Path of War, a Tome of Battle conversion.

There is a base class called the Warder, which is a tactician. There are Prestige Classes for combining PoW classes with Arcane magic, Divine magic, or Psionics. I would recommend asking about it, because Warder/Psion (or wizard or Sage-blooded sorc)/Arcane PrC (afb right now, forget the name) sounds perfect for this

Would that I could, but the DM is adamant about no 3rd party, even Dreamscarred Press. Which makes me sad, because Path of War looks fantastic.

[GreyBlack]

Double post, I know, but I'm just going to continue here.

So Warpriest seems like a pretty solid bet, and Dreamed Secrets will almost certainly be my level 7 feat, but what other feats should I be looking at? Any particularly good feat lines I should look at? Obviously, Power Attack is a good bet, but I'm open to anything right now.

[TandemChelipeds]

Double post, I know, but I'm just going to continue here.

So Warpriest seems like a pretty solid bet, and Dreamed Secrets will almost certainly be my level 7 feat, but what other feats should I be looking at? Any particularly good feat lines I should look at? Obviously, Power Attack is a good bet, but I'm open to anything right now.

Scribe Scroll has excellent synergy with Dreamed Secrets, but I've already mentioned that. Leadership is a no-brainer if your GM doesn't veto it, and again, looks completely in-character for a legendary tactician. If you go the Divine Commander route, take Leadership so you have an army to apply that 15th-level ability to. I'm not an expert by any means on combat feats, but you'll be able to take plenty of those if you're a Warpriest, so you won't be feat-hungry like you would be as a Cleric. Improved Initiative is great; you'll probably be buffing a lot and if you're doing that you'll want to move first. I recommend doing lots of summoning, since it's mechanically effective and, once more, seems entirely in-character for a tactician. To that end, I recommend Spell Focus(Conjuration), Augment Summoning (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/augment-summoning---final), Summon Good Monster (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/summon-good-monster), Superior Summoning (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/superior-summoning), and Sacred Summons (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/sacred-summons). If you do go the summoning route, I recommend playing a human and taking Spell Focus(Conjuration) and Augment Summoning at first level just to get that feat tax out of the way; Spell Focus(Conjuration) is practically useless on its own.

Thematically, those are some cool domains, but Knowledge and Earth aren't that great mechanically.
If you go Cleric or Inquisitor, take the Darkness domain, no questions asked. It's amazing and the only thing keeping everyone from taking it in default Pathfinder is that it only belongs to Zon-Kuthon. It's better for a Cleric than an Inquisitor, though, because it has some awesome domain spells(though Dreamed Secrets does render that a little less relevant). Darkness is also pretty great for Warpriests, and I'd say the other best blessing is probably Magic when it gets to level 10. Hand of the Acolyte also means you don't have to carry ranged weapons around with you, which I suppose is pretty nice far superior to its usual power, given all the Sacred Weapon bonuses you get. Still not nearly as good as that 10th-level ability. Death is a good blessing, considering that you can give yourself loads of resistances and a handy Intimidate bonus at level 1, and bestow stacking negative levels with a touch attack, or while delivering damage with a regular attack at level 10.

[Paul H]

Hi

Well, there is a feat that adds your Cha bonus to your saves, as per Paladin

Thanks
Paul H